Browse Alphabetically

rule of thumb

A rule of thumb is an informal principle that is intended to provide general guidance rather
than precise direction.

People once used the phrase rule of thumb in reference to a rough physical measurement,
but the term has evolved to apply to any kind of broadly applicable and imprecise rule. It's
not expected that a rule of thumb will always provide the correct answer.

1. If you get a message saying the domain name server (DNS) can't find
your page and you're sure you've typed it in correctly or clicked on a valid link, try it again --
twice. Sometimes packets
don't get where they're supposed to.

2. If you get a 404 error (page
not found) message, the page may be temporarily missing because of some issue at the target site.
Try it again later or send an email informing the webmaster of the problem and asking
them to restore the page.

3. Be aware that sometimes a page you've visited recently may be coming from your cache or the cache on a proxy server within your company.
To get the "fresh" version of the page, click on reload in the menu.

Rules of thumb often yield best practices. For
example, in intrusion
detection, a rule of thumb is that records and profiles should have unique identifiers,
insofar as possible. That rule of thumb yields the best practice of including full path names for files and
following a user identification scheme that binds a user ID to the system on which it resides.

The origin of the phrase rule of thumb is somewhat contentious. Many claim that the
original "rule of thumb" was legislation that at one time made it legal for a man to beat his wife,
although not with any implement thicker than his thumb. References to such a law exist; however, no
documentation of the actual law has ever been located.

The reference to a rough measurement for carpentry and agricultural applications is a more
likely source of the phrase. The earliest documented use is in this sense is in J. Durham’s
Heaven upon Earth (1685): "Many profest [professed] Christians are like to foolish builders,
who build by guess, and by rule of thumb."

- BizDevOps, also known as DevOps 2.0, is an approach to software development that encourages developers, operations staff and business teams to work together so the organization can develop software... (SearchSoftwareQuality.com)

Glossaries

- This WhatIs.com glossary contains terms related to Internet applications, including definitions about Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery models and words and phrases about web sites, e-commerce ...

Certified OpenStack Administrator (COA) is a vendor-agnostic exam designed by the OpenStack Foundation in conjunction with a number of international partners to test an administrator's abilities in cloud management and day-to-day operations.